by Jarrett Bell, USA TODAY Sports

by Jarrett Bell, USA TODAY Sports

The first two games of the Robert Griffin III comeback package have been so disastrous that it's a wonder some of the ticket buyers haven't asked for a refund.

Wild passes, garbage time stats and the incredibly shrinking pocket is no way for the Washington quarterback to do business as he tries to get his groove back.

Yet it's not time to bail on him now.

Assuming that RG3 is healthy - Doc James Andrews cleared him, right? - coach Mike Shanahan has to ride it out with the kid.

Shanahan hasn't suggested anything to the contrary, but quarterback controversies are part the fabric in the nation's capital. And debate was fueled further when former Super Bowl-winning coach Tony Dungy said during the Sunday Night Football broadcast that if Griffin has another stinker of a performance, Washington should consider benching him and rolling with fellow second-year passer Kirk Cousins.

Well, if RG3 needs to be benched, then so does the bulk of the O-line that has left him so vulnerable. And so does coordinator Jim Haslett and his sorry defense. Same for Kyle Shanahan, the O-coordinator dialing up questionable play calls.

Sure, Griffin is bigger than the team. He's the one who has had breakfast with President Obama.

But this 0-2 funk is so much bigger than RG3.

If he is "100% healthy," despite what your lying eyes may tell you, he has to be given the chance to play his way back into a flow. That might be painful for the faithful to watch, but it's part of the comeback medicine. He needs more snaps, not fewer.

Remember Operation Patience?

It's obvious that RG3 isn't the same guy who electrified his team en route to offensive rookie of the year honors in 2012. He doesn't seem to have much confidence planting on his reconstructed right knee, which has thrown his mechanics out of whack.

Griffin's throwing too frequently with his momentum moving backward, rather than forward, with a defined follow-through. His feet haven't been consistently set. No wonder some of throws have missed by a mile, such a contrast to the dart-board accuracy that was part of his deal last year when he completed nearly 66% of his throws. He's currently below 63%, though that doesn't tell the tale of some blatant misfires.

The other thing that's missing is the threat of the run.

Surely Washington doesn't want to expose the face of the franchise to further risks by asking him to be a running quarterback - remember, the kid's dad, Robert Griffin II, declared during the offseason that his son needed to be a pocket passer - but this is ridiculous.

Through two games, RG3 - he's passed for 649 yards with five touchdowns and three interceptions with an 89.6 passer rating - has had exactly zero designed runs.

In the words of Vince Lombardi: "What the hell's going on out here?"

Maybe the lack of running plays in a system that was so prolific with RG3's read-option packages last season underscores the "concerns" that Mike Shanahan said Andrews had upon granting the final clearance. Shanahan, during a recent interview with USA TODAY Sports, contended that Andrews' concerns had nothing to do with strategy or the types of plays that Griffin was used for.

Shanahan maintained that if Griffin couldn't do everything required for the position, then he wouldn't be in the lineup.

The actions suggest some sort of disconnect, not that RG3 should run 20 times a game. But there's something to be said about the threat of the run in a pistol offense. Without that threat, defenses have been blitzing like crazy - especially right up the middle, the quickest path to the prize.

Griffin has gone from the NFL's least-blitzed quarterback in 2012 to one of its most blitzed. If he's been instructed to stay home, or the play-calling has kept the reins on his bootlegs and waggles, that needs to change.

Sure, there would be risk with the runs. But there's risk on every inch of a football field. And if Griffin is in the pocket like a sitting duck, there's a lot of risk there, too.

With Ndamukong Suh and his rep for cheap shots coming to FedEx Field with the Detroit Lions on Sunday, Griffin needs the green light to be himself again - if that's what is lacking.

It doesn't help that Washington's worst-ranked defense has allowed 71 points and 1,023 yards, so crucial to the 33-7 and 31-0 deficits against the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers, respectively, that dictated a catch-up formula.

If RG3 is not healthy enough to do the job, he shouldn't be out there.

That's what should have happened last year, when it seemed the gutsy Griffin made the call about returning to the NFC playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks that ended with his two torn knee ligaments.